Pirate Bay to sue for human rights violations

26 Jun 200957 Views

Peter Sunde, spokesperson for Swedish torrent-sharing site the Pirate Bay, has said that the site owners are getting ready to sue Sweden for human rights violations, following a court ruling yesterday stating that although the presiding judge in the Pirate Bay trial was a member of a copyright protection organisation, he was not biased in his verdict.

A bit of background on the case: in late April of this year the four co-founders of the Pirate Bay were found guilty in a Swedish court of assisting in the distribution of illegal content online by virtue of providing weblinks to copyright content elsewhere on the web.

Following the admission by judge Tomas Norström’s that he was a member of the Swedish Association for Copyright, as well as a board member of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Pirate Bay demanded a retrial on the basis that there was bias, and was subsequently denied.

According to TorrentFreak, the court said: “That a judge agrees with the principles that are fundamental to this law cannot in itself be a reason for bias.”

“When people think you’re down and out, that you’ve lost and have no way to win … that’s the perfect time to hit them harder than ever before. Ammunition is loaded and the cannons are aimed. We’re all the Pirate Bay,” said Sunde on his blog yesterday.

What all of this means is that the trial cannot be appealed because of the ‘no bias’ ruling. However, the verdict can still be appealed.